Bed and breakfast availability
Basildon b&b, guesthouse and hotel accommodation

Visit Basildon and the surrounding villages and stay in bed & breakfast accommodation:

Basildon, Essex. The new town of Basildon is one of the eight planned after the last war which would encircle London and take over some of its stirplus industry and population. It overlooks the estuary of the River Thames and is placed upon undulating country, containing seven parishes and an indigenous population of some 25,000. Placed as it was along the railway and the main Al27 road from London to Southend it has been planned as a rectangle some 6 miles from west to east, and 3 miles from north to south. The number of people it will accommodate has increased from the original 50,000 and it seems likely that it will ultimately reach between 110,000 and 140,000.

Though the new buildings will attract immediate attention the visitor should not forget that the churches of the original seven parishes are worth noting. Holy Cross, Basildon, has a 14th-century nave, a brick chancel of 1597, and a weathervane dated 1702. At Laindon, St Nicholas has a timber belfry, weather-boarded and with a broach spire, with typical Essex timber framing inside. St Mary’s at Langdon Hills is 16th- and 17th-century, with a chapel rebuilt in the 19th. A feature is a royal coat of arms on the wall over the nave which is dated 1660. At Vange is All Saints, a church of Norman times, restored in 1837 when the west gallery was added. Nevendon has in St Peter’s, a church showing work of the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries, while there are two Victorian churches at Langdon Hills (St Mary’s— 1876) and at Pitsea (St Michael’s — 1871) with a tower dating back to the early 16th century.

However, to see the buildings of the New Basildon you should start at the town centre, which really is right in the middle of the town. It lies just north of the railway and over 1 mile south of the Al27 at the junction with the Chelmsford road. Sir Basil Spence was consultant to the architect of the Development Corporation, Mr A. B. Davis. The main feature is a traffic-free pedestrian concourse with the 14-story Brooke House which stands on eight reinforced concrete V-shaped supports, as its main vertical accent.

Surrounding the town centre are a number of new areas which include much residential building of varying degrees of success and to the north east major industrial areas.

Nearby towns: Billericay, Canvey Island, Maldon, Southend-on-Sea, Tilbury

Nearby villages: Bowers Gifford, Downham, East Horndon, Fobbing, Great Burstead, Herongate, Horndon on the Hill, Hutton, Ingrave, Laindon, Langdon Hills, Little Burstead, Nevendon, Orsett, Pitsea, Ramsden Heath, Shell Haven, Shenfield, South Benfleet, Stanford le Hope, Vange, Wickford

Have you decided to visit Basildon or the surrounding villages? Please look above for somewhere to stay in:

• a Basildon bed and breakfast (a Basildon B&B or Basildon b and b)
• a Basildon guesthouse
• a Basildon hotel (or motel)
• a Basildon self-catering establishment, or
• other Basildon accommodation